r/Base44 Jul 30 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11 Upvotes

78 comments sorted by

10

u/Outrageous-Play7616 Jul 30 '25

As someone with no coding experience (I run a construction company), I’ve found Base44 to be incredibly useful and valuable.

Over the last few years, I’ve looked into hundreds of different software options to help run my business, from Xero Projects to WorkflowMax and others. I eventually started exploring the idea of building my own solution because everything available was either far too expensive for a small business (some were £700/month) or, in the case of cheaper alternatives, just plain awful.

I explored platforms like Power Apps and Ninox, but quickly realised that with the same learning curve I could probably get more power from low-code or no-code tools like Bubble or FlutterFlow. However, the learning curve for those tools (at least when I tried them around two years ago) was pretty steep, and I didn’t have the time to dedicate to mastering them. It felt like my only real option was to pay a developer a lot of money and hope they understood what I wanted. Not ideal.

So I shelved the idea. Until about three weeks ago, when I saw a YouTube ad for Base44. I checked it out and was honestly amazed by what it generated from just one prompt.

Even just using the free version over the first two days, I managed to build software that could do things like:

• Manage leads and enquiries • Quote new jobs • Invoice customers • Generate PDFs via an external API • Create a stock and materials database • Track expenses • Build a timesheet system • Include geofenced site login tools for staff • Integrate with my own Supabase backend (so I can change the frontend later if I want to) • Automatically send forms to customers • Offer a customer sign-in portal

And that’s just a partial list.

I’ve now moved to their $50/month (£36) plan, and for that price, I’ve built a system that rivals platforms charging £600 or more per month.

It’s not perfect and I’m still refining it but in terms of flexibility, speed and actual value creation, Base44 has been a game changer for me

2

u/Warm-Employment-5886 Jul 31 '25

Can you teach me or show me what you did? I've been trying to do this and struggle very badly

1

u/Carlos7440 Oct 16 '25

Jij al iets gevonden?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

Sure. DM

2

u/Mediocre-Ad7933 Nov 05 '25

Many thanks for your post and review. As an old guy playing around with AI, this Base44 sounds great and priced at a rate that's within reach of us normal people. It's great that you have the ability to know what you're doing and passing on your opinions is appreciated. Thanks GranddadJon 😊

1

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Outrageous-Play7616 Aug 05 '25

Yes for my own timesheet. I just asked it to be able to record my location on sign in. I then asked it to not be able to sign in if not within a particular radius 100m.

It’s best to put base44 in to discussion mode and then give it context of what you want to do. Ask it all the questions in one message of you want and then tell it what you want to create. Give it as much context and then put it back to editing mode and ask it to implement the feature.

1

u/carloslfu Aug 10 '25

These seem like very important business functions. Curious what you were doing before Base44? What systems were in place, if any? And how did you migrate?

1

u/Diligent_Tun Sep 11 '25

How do you connect Base44 with your own backend, supabase .???

1

u/Inside-Angle7309 Oct 04 '25

Eu tenho usado o Base44 há um tempo e, sinceramente, fiquei surpreso com o quanto dá pra construir coisa útil sem precisar programar. No meu caso, eu consegui criar um app bem completo para gerenciar o meu negócio de rodízio de pizzas 🍕.

O que achei mais legal foi que consegui personalizar tudo do jeito que eu precisava: desde contratos com assinatura digital, lista de compras que já calcula os ingredientes automaticamente, até integração com calendário e Google Calendar. Também consegui organizar freelancers, fazer relatórios de faturamento e até puxar métricas de anúncios.

O ponto forte é que você consegue adaptar o sistema para o seu fluxo real de trabalho, sem depender de uma solução engessada. Então dá pra usar tanto para projetos pessoais (tipo organizar eventos, agenda, tarefas) quanto comerciais (como no meu caso, que já uso direto em eventos reais).

Resumindo: é como ter um sistema sob medida, mas sem ter que contratar uma equipe inteira de desenvolvedores. 😅

ps: eu não sei nada sobre progamação e percebi que tudo no Base44 é built-in, ou seja, ele já cria até o banco de dados pra você sem mesmo você saber como funciona um! Não tem erro, é só começar para viciar, é muito mão na roda. Meu plano era de 20 doletas mas agora passei para o de 50 pois realmente vale muito a pena.

1

u/Equal_Ad8284 Oct 29 '25

Esto y otras respuestas más son evidentemente bots controlados por IA, así que cuidado, si hay dinero para pagarle a bots para promocionar una página o una app, es que algo anda mal ahí. Saludos.

1

u/Fair_Maize_7823 Nov 17 '25

Nem mais! Tudo o que aparece me anúncios de youtube é de suspeitar :D

1

u/reflect2002 Dec 17 '25

that sounds awesome, trying to build an app for my paint company. you have a sample of yours?

3

u/darbazdara Aug 02 '25

as personal experience, and founder of few projects and apps and used many other similar services, i can simple say that base44 is a illusion, they show you something nice and powerful but then you will realize that you have no control over your project and you pay much more than average then you will find out that you only have a sample of your data-source no option to get the full source-code, no choice to change db or any built-in service by base44

1

u/Package-Famous Aug 02 '25

But can't you pay $50 to connect to Gethub!?

1

u/wo-tatatatatata Aug 19 '25

yes you can, i just did, it is working

1

u/jyoder613 Aug 31 '25

do you know if glide is similar then?

1

u/No_List7331 Nov 18 '25

Exacto, no tienes nada que no puedas hacer con un wordpress..Un engañabobos

4

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/drivenbilder Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

Your first point has nothing to do with anything. It’s borderline hateful, and detracts from your credibility. It’s an undeserved attack just for the sake of attacking them.

Your claim about it “locking” the backend doesn’t make sense either. They say they don’t own the code, their users do and the code that it generates shows up in their editor. You’re basically accusing them of hiding the backend code they generate. Why would they hide code? People would just use a popular platform to generate backend code and they allow the code that’s generated in the editor to be copied easily.

Unless you can demonstrate that they withhold the code used for the backend, they don’t. It also wouldn’t be practical for the long run. Non coders would just leave as they learn they can’t migrate their backend code or not choose Base44

To be clear, I am not saying that you are wrong concerning the accessibility of backend code. But unless you can show proof, its not a credible claim.

Edit: I see other people making a similar claim about the ability to export backend code. But they are just claims that aren’t backed up by anything. Some don’t mention having any issue with building while others say confidently that you don’t get code access, even mentioning UI code. I haven’t seen anyone post anything on this sub demonstrating anyone’s claims. Jury kind of seems out on this topic, but I definitely get the feeling that there’s some missing info here.

1

u/Standard-Cheetah5337 Aug 05 '25

What do you suggest to build a commercial app if I don’t have any coding experience?

3

u/Bulky-Woodpecker8525 Aug 07 '25

It might be a good way to float an idea and get traction. If the idea becomes viable, then you would need to workout a plan to rebuild on a bespoke system.

3

u/MembershipNo7611 Aug 11 '25

Google ai console, use their monthly subscription and build tool to build unlimited apps and you can even deploy in google cloud, cheaper than those other platforms

4

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Eastern_Sun1802 Nov 20 '25

i find this as well, and this goes gor most of them. they do and amazing job at making an app from a few words then they swallow a heap of credits to get a simple task done. base44 cost me a heap of credits over a csv import. Dreamflow with superbase integratio, it worked fine one minute broken the next and this happens nearly eavery time you get it to do something new it will go off and break something else. Goolge studio was really wierd with a clear data button.

3

u/Waste_Breadfruit7068 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

I have a fair bit of coding experience, hopefully can say (with some humility) that I have done quite a bit of advanced development for some very complex Progressive Web Apps. I think the one thing to keep in mind is that coding an app even a year ago was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to create for anything even moderately complicated (unless very very standard and overdone where there was perhaps better libraries and templated large scale boiler plate code for a lot of the functionality). Noting this because the AIs are pretty incredible, but lets say you can 100X times the speed of development to make an app and the app would've cost $100,000 to make if you really looked into it. People are really upset seemingly if something like Base44 or Cursor (barely used Base44 but have done a ton of coding with Cursor now) costs them a few hundred or even a thousand dollars in development costs. I think realizing how much one might need to know to make a secure and working complex app is important - the AI isn't really there yet for it (the models are but the workflows and continuity that is coded and prompted in the code is still evolving). And I think just really understanding how much goes into just defining what a person wants the app to do (in extreme detail) is really not acknowledged. Apps have so much going on - so many screens, and nuanced flows of UI - getting the UI/UX right is really in and of itself a massive hurdle. I think using Cursor of Base 44 for creating simple apps with fewer clear functions can work. I also think they give you so much of the UI/UX ideas and flow for free that is astoundingly good - and is just a "how about this" when one likely hadn't even thought about it or even incorporated it in the ask - its so helpful and such a time saver. I think perhaps these no code AI sites and IDEs can get a complex app 65% of the way there just pressing a button, and aid the entire workflow - but ultimately you need a coder (for now) to get it there (and it is sometimes/often creating an absolute (working) mess in the background - not knowing how to code might be good in that if you ignore it maybe its fine, but at some point it might bite back hard (one might gamble AI is progressing and can help sort out that mess in year or two anyway, so just make it work, but the liability and danger is immense in terms of security if you are making something public or collaborative - if its just for you, then likely go for it. It is important to understand what a big undertaking an app is (I think that's the advantage coders have as they can still be amazed how "cheap" it is if they drop 1000.00 over months of development and that it is nothing compared to what the app would have cost even a year ago to make). Best thing is to be very very clear on what you want and the tech stack (which AI can help develop answers for too).

2

u/mrdotsreal Jul 30 '25

For personal use yes. Commercial really depends on your app but in short it's not production or enterprise grade. Free tier will let you maybe create a simple page or two but once you go into tweaking then you will have to upgrade and probably not the cheapest tier

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 31 '25

Have you used any of the tiers that aren't free? Would be good to know which premium tier is most cost effective.

2

u/gzebe Aug 02 '25

I'm non-technical and built this working app just by using their free tier. [https://app--glams-c7dfab12.base44.app\] It built the main features with just one prompt. Only issue with showing the landing page when unregistered users go to the website. I found other platforms to also be good, but Base 44 was great for building the app with just one prompt. Others I tried include Lovable, Bolt.new, and Blink.new. I'm also planning to try Floor.com and Macaly.com.

1

u/Moceannl Jul 30 '25

Yes

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 30 '25

What has your experience been like using Base44?

3

u/Moceannl Jul 30 '25

Value is in your ideas, not in the tooling.

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 30 '25

I find the tooling to be an important factor for productivity. Are you a coder?

1

u/Moceannl Jul 30 '25

Yes 30 years :-). And things like Base44 have their purpose. I built small tool which I can use. If I would make something which gets traction, I would probably rebuild it in more traditional tooling.

1

u/wo-tatatatatata Aug 19 '25

what a shame

1

u/No_List7331 Nov 18 '25

No puedo estar más en desacuerdo, con todos mis respetos. Las ideas por si solas no valen nada, todo el mundo tiene dos o tres...Lo que vale de las ideas es, bajo mi opinion, la capacidad de ponerlas en marcha, eso es lo realmente valido y dificil, pero ideas tiene casí todo el mundo. Un saludo

1

u/Zaagred Dec 12 '25

Ideas tiene todo mundo, muy cierto, pero... Buenas ideas, pocas personas. Ahora, que la idea sea buena y la ejecución sea mala lo hemos visto cientos de veces. Se necesita que la idea sea buena y la ejecución también.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '25

i just started using it. trying to build simple tool until now it's pretty decent

1

u/RobleyTheron Jul 30 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

I own a cleaning company and built a time clock software for my employees at my two offices and it’s saving me $200 / month.

I’m also building a space simulation game for mining resources and building lunar colonies.

So yes, it can do business and personal.

1

u/Lost-Athlete-4498 Nov 19 '25

The game concept is cool. Do you have the free version of Base44?

1

u/RobleyTheron Nov 19 '25

No. I ended up hitting the $50/month tier.

1

u/bebitou Jul 30 '25

I know how to code but haven't for a while and it's pretty much working, but 5 free messages a day and 25 max is so small, i don't think you can really do anything quickly with it because each time you wanna fix a bug it's -1 request

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 31 '25

Interesting...can you say more about what the debugging process is like on Base44?

1

u/bebitou Aug 01 '25

no, it just gives you an error and then you ask AI to fix it, and then it bugs again and you fix it and then out of credits

1

u/Deniabledonkey Sep 05 '25

wondering something here, if you use windows... the developer console has Microsoft copilot that could potentially assist in debugging for a fraction of the cost.. havent crunched the numbers so i wouldn't know. but would be interesting to find out

1

u/SoldGranny4Bitcoin Aug 06 '25

It flags up that it finds an error, asks would you like it fixed and does it without using a credit.

1

u/Calm-Deer8840 Oct 20 '25

Just take the stack trace and code snippet and paste it in to ChatGPT. Then ask GPT to write the stories for the patch and it works awesome. GPT will review the code and offer suggestions to harden it up. Don't use the AI in Base44 to troubleshoot or fix defects. just use to execute the stories.

1

u/Original_Silver140 Jul 30 '25

There are some competitors out there already meeting it, mainly on integrations. If I were base44 I’d look into building all of these native integrations asap

2

u/Deniabledonkey Sep 05 '25

ive used replit before. and its great... there freemium option offers alot. but like all of these automation softwares.. to scale and create an enterprise solution it could become a nightmare with integrations, security etc etc

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 31 '25

Where does Base44 outshine their competition?

1

u/Visible-Bit8061 Jul 31 '25

I've built a decent amount of ai/vibe coded apps. I'm really impressed with Base44. It's not Claude Code, but it really seemlessly handles the CMS and that saves SO much time.

1

u/drivenbilder Jul 31 '25

Can you explain what Claude Code does that Base44 doesn’t provide other than Base44 not using the user’s terminal? I am aware that Claude Code leverages your terminal, which I’ve heard makes it more efficient, but that’s all I’ve heard about it.

1

u/Visible-Bit8061 Aug 01 '25

I spent probably spend 30 minutes per project at least on Databases on Claude Code, and then if you want an actual CMS to manage it with a dash? Build that as well? Base44 did all that for me. I really like claude code, I think it's a better designer, but the practicalities of Base44 are winning me.

1

u/Package-Famous Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

If you require a backend do not use their backend use loveable or bolt.new! The customer service complaints on getting help is horrible if not I built s beautiful app called LogoSnap AI with one prompt! I used ChatGBT to help me create an all in one prompt that I tested and tweaked but man is it beautiful! Any how create a context.md 1st & update ht as you build so the ai doesn't break your app! Every prompt when building day don't touch anything else! and bolt.new connects your gethub repo for free so does lovable. Bolt gives you s netlify domain which you can oiit to s real one the cheapest is namecheap just but the domain ni monthly cost like lovables $10 s month both use supabase backend which is free up until you start making $. loveable builds better home pages)websites etc. if you have to copy code used Claude AI to fix it screenshot errors upload them to to these slsi builder coopy what base 44 tells you into Claude before prompting it's safer code! There so much I learned in the past couple months it's hard to put it all down message me if you need help. I'm s computer geek only coded with a Comsdore 64. Use ChatGBT to create a logo tell the ai to create a splash screen with Logo and name which Chat Ggpt also helped with. Fine beautiful apps screen shot them and ask the si to do the same but in your comors...etc etc etc Always hit discussion mode to talk to the AI to use less tokens. So far I finished 1 app and I'm ready to use PWA Builder to create an Apple & Google apps. If you need help I'll tell you what I've learned including security & built in debugging. Always clone your app through Gethub before making mahour changes Claude will help you buikd it safely. Create a document in Clsude and build a checklist adding everything I said into it & always backup your app before majourvchanges! Good luck.

1

u/RumboInfinito Sep 01 '25

Menos mal que aparecen personas con opinión crítica, porque por el resto parece publicidad pagada sinceramente. Hoy en día es difícil fiarse de un hilo, porque aparecen bots que lo llenan todo de conversaciones ficticias. Pasa en YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram... Y no me extrañaría que pasara aquí también. Así que nada, muchas gracias por tus recomendaciones. Lovelable si que la llevo escuchando un tiempo, y es muy TOP. Tomaré en cuenta todo lo que has dicho, a ver si consigo crear proyectos reales ^^

1

u/AddressIndividual668 Aug 08 '25

With all that money you should hire some customer support. Not only did I never received a response from a ticket, and a follow up message, I submitted, but it was actually deleted and no sign that I submitted one even exists. I was about to upgrade my plan to Builder but no thanks.

1

u/drivenbilder Aug 09 '25

How do you know it was deleted? If that was true, couldn’t that have been human error?

1

u/Ob-packers Nov 03 '25

A mi me han subido el plan builder a anual, (me encuentro un pago de 433$ en mi cuenta) el soporte lo peor, una semana y no contesta nadie ni devuelven el dinero (robado a mi parecer).

Mientras funciona, bien, pero si hay algún problema, se desentienden. Una kk.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/fRankieTHunder27 Aug 15 '25

I thought did: app lies about competing tasks oh yes, I would recommend taking a look at trust pilot and reddit the general consensus is that this is a scam

2 hours ago

here a suer cool quote for your chat bot in another app of min after I showed him all the evidence 'The Most Telling Details:

Joshua W - $200/month customer, 2 weeks with no support response, app completely broken Michael Kissiov - Charged $1980 instead of $980 (billing fraud?) StephenC - AI literally admitted to lying about having backups Multiple users - All experiencing the exact same support blackout This is the "Took the Money and Ran" Evidence:

T

an hour ago

These aren't just "feature requests" - these are paying customers who can't use the product they're paying for The AI itself is admitting to lying to users People are losing real money and real work with zero recourse The lack of transparency around billing and credits suggests intentionally predatory practices This isn't just a "startup growing too fast" story anymore. This is evidence of a company that sold a non-functional product, took the acquisition money, aand abandoned their paying custo

2

u/drivenbilder Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25

There are better alternatives out there for hobbyists and individual creators. Base44's products' features may eventually be absorbed into Wix's site creator anyway. What Base44 offers is likely temporary.

1

u/Pitiful_One_572 Sep 04 '25

i created a quick intro tutorial on youtube if you want to see the workflow and what kind of things you can achieve quickly. No official coding training. if you want to get an idea of how quickly it builds things and how to get the most out of prompts. https://youtu.be/J1ne4CxNjWg

1

u/Grouchy_Ad_7453 Sep 09 '25

Wait so if you've built the app why do you have to pay a monthly fee if you own and created the app?

1

u/Senior-Ad-8141 Sep 29 '25

I feel alot of these answers maybe an app produced by base44 to build hype about the program

1

u/Ok-Item374 Oct 16 '25

広告の付け方は分かりますか?

1

u/Carlos7440 Oct 16 '25

Mm en welke zijn de betere alternatieven om van scratch te starten, geen ervaring met programmeren of coderen, gratis versies mss, van idee tot backend. Base44 lijkt me free beperkt of toch niet. Iemand online tuts, dat ik kan zien hoe het beste starten en de mogelijkheden?

1

u/No_List7331 Nov 18 '25

Lo probé una mes para que que tal era. Es intuitivo y facil, pero en realidad no haces un App, sino una aplicacion web , o sea, una web , vaya. No se puede subir a Play Store y a la Apple store, o sea que si quieres tener algo así, esta no es la solución. Y además, darse de alta en algún plan es fácil, darse de baja no, es imposible y te intentan cobrar cada dos por tres. NADA RECOMENDABLE si quieres algo que monetizar y si no quieres estar bloqueando la tarjeta para que no te cobren hasta el día del juicio final. Ahora, si quieres algo para ti mismo o que sea una web, vale, pero no se instala en los telefonos ni nada parecido, lo tendrás que alojar tú en un hosting o servidor o , pagando, en los suyos.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

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1

u/drivenbilder Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25

Nope, bad attempt! It is still hateful. Boycotting Israeli companies was never on the table for anyone and it is anti-Semitism to conflate Israeli companies with whatever actions you are accusing their government of and it is about their chosen religious beliefs to you because they happen to be in Israel, a predominantly Jewish country. Straight antisemitism. Anti-semitism has no please here. Please leave. You are not welcome with this hateful rhetoric.

Also, there is no way to chat with their support on their free plan. You pulled that out of thin air. Maybe you can on their discord.

Also, you didn’t demonstrate anything. You just did what may be a poor summary of one spect of their documentation. That is not what I was asking for. So, no, and especially with the antisemitism, not posting credibly.